January 4, 2024
Dungeons and Raids
January 2, 2024
Items
Discover Bel’ameth, the arms of the Goddess, a much-needed place for the kaldorei to seek much-needed repose and solace. This new night elf settlement lies adjacent to the Ohn’ahran Plains in the Dragon Isles. It rests beneath the new World Tree, Amirdrassil’s boughs, and can be explored in the next Dragonflight update, Seeds of Renewal.
Traverse through a vibrant wilderness teeming with flora and fauna as you explore several points of interest.
Arlithrien Lodge can be found in the northwest, the home of Amirdrassil, the Dream’s Hope raid—its name pays homage to Teldrassil’s Pools of Arlithrien.
To the northeast of Bel’ameth lies its harbor connected to Evenfall Watchtower, with a portal connection that can ferry players to the Feathermoon Stronghold in Feralas.
A sanctuary that sits in the northern part of Amirdrassil for the darker members of kaldorei society. Here, dark rangers, death knights, demon hunters, and Shen’dralar mages can be seen training and socializing.
Bel’ameth is home to a wide variety of creatures, from notable kaldorei to owls and hippogryphs.
Prepare to journey to Bel’ameth when Seeds of Renewal arrives on January 16. Watch the official World of Warcraft news site for more to come as we draw closer to the next update for Dragonflight.
Trolls, draenei, and warlock Tyrant and Darkglare demons get a glow up in the Seeds of Renewal content update.
Refresh your hair color before you head out on your latest adventures. You’re bound to stun your enemies with your glorious locks.
Beauty might be only skin deep, but you can change yours at any time with a new skin color.
Show you care when you give your demonic minions a glow up with new customizations for Tyrant or Darkglare demons. They won’t thank you for it, but does it matter?
Visit the Barber Shop to get these fresh new looks.
December 21, 2023
Characters
Quests
Time is on your side with this month’s signature item—the Golden Mobile Timepiece transmog.
Visit T&W** (Tawney and Wilder) just outside the Mage District in Stormwind or the Zen’shiri Trading Post next to Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar to check out all the latest items*** they have available.
This month, new activities are available to help players catch up on their activity bar. These events will begin one week before the end of the month.
Complete activities to fill the bar at the top of the Traveler’s Log found in the Adventure Guide (Shift-J)***, and you’ll receive this month’s bonus reward— Buttercup the baby moose pet.
Whew! It has been an incredible year for the WoW Team. We are endlessly grateful to our community for being in our world as we grow, change, experiment, and deliver as much magic and fun as possible!
This time last year, I posted our first roadmap. I’m so thankful to our team for seeing it all become real, and then some! We know that promising a thing is a far distant second to actually delivering on that promise. With that said, we continue to learn and evolve with each release and announcement this year, and we are fully focused on listening and responding to you and building for a strong future in Azeroth for all of us.
Listing everything we did together this year is huge: six Dragonflight content updates, Wrath content updates and the return of the Icecrown Citadel raid dungeon, Classic Hardcore launch, BlizzCon 2023, an incredible Race to World First in Dragonflight Season 3, and just recently, Classic Season of Discovery! This year has been one to remember and we want to keep the momentum going!
Now it’s time to share a look ahead into 2024!
In modern World of Warcraft, you’re going to see three more content updates for Dragonflight arriving before World of Warcraft: The War Within releases next year. In these updates, we’ll be wrapping up the story for this expansion and laying the foundation for our next one. Dragonflight Season 4 will revisit Dragonflight’s dungeons and raids, along with outdoor content, featuring updated rewards, and a few new twists. Then, in the Spring/Summer, we’ll ask for your feedback when the War Within expansion alpha and beta tests drop. We will continue to communicate details, dates, and more goodness as we get closer to content updates, just like this year! Well, most of it anyway (we’ll have some surprises in store too!). Coming up next in January, we have the Seeds of Renewal content update on tap and we’re currently keeping an eye on your feedback on the live public test realms (PTR) for this update.
In WoW Classic, we have updates coming for Classic Hardcore with “Self Found” support in February as a new way to challenge players and add a little more hardcore into your Hardcore. Lok’tar ogar! We’ll also have more phases to release in Season of Discovery next year as the adventure continues. And, of course, Cataclysm Classic is right around the corner in the first half of next year!
We remain committed to delivering content in all flavors of World of Warcraft so no matter how you play, you won’t have to look far ahead to know something is right around the corner for you!
Above all, we are thankful for the gift of working on World of Warcraft with you and embracing a time of evolution. From us all on the WoW Team, please have a happy, healthy holiday and a peaceful New Year.
We remain dedicated to continuing this amazing journey alongside you all.
Holly Longdale
Executive Producer
December 19, 2023
Classes
Dungeons and Raids
Player versus Player
December 18, 2023
Classes
Dungeons and Raids
Items
The War Within expansion introduces Hero Talents as a new update to World of Warcraft classes. They are an evergreen form of character progression for each class specialization that introduces new powers and class fantasies. Feedback is critical to us as a part of creating an impactful and fun addition to the game, so we are sharing our goals for Hero Talents with the community to get first impressions of them and learn how well we’re meeting those goals.
Hero Talents are new, self-contained talent trees that players unlock access at level 71. Hero Talents build on the abilities and talents of current classes and specializations. Players can choose a single Hero Talent tree to activate on a character and these talents can be changed in the same way class talents can be currently changed in the game. There are three Hero Talent trees for each class (excepting druid with four and demon hunter with two). Each specialization has two Hero Talent trees they can choose between, and each of these trees is available as an option for two specializations.
For example, warriors have three Hero Talent tree options: Slayer, Colossus, and Mountain Thane. Fury has access to Mountain Thane and Slayer, Protection has access to Mountain Thane and Colossus, and Arms has access to Colossus and Slayer.
There are 11 nodes in a Hero Talent tree. The first of these unlocks with the system at level 71, and you earn 1 talent point per level from level 71 to 80, so you get every talent in the tree by level 80. Hero Talents will have starter builds available, and your saved builds will save your Hero Talent choices as well.
Each Hero Talent tree starts with a “keystone” talent that introduces the core mechanic and concept of the tree. This could be a new ability, an enhancement to an existing ability or cooldown, or a new buff you can trigger. The bottom talent of each tree is a “capstone” talent that builds on the core themes of the tree or adds new power to the keystone.
Each tree will offer or modify some class utility and include defensive bonuses that are useful to all specializations. We are aiming for all trees to be about equal in the amount of utility and defensiveness they provide. Trees for characters that can take on a tanking role may have some additional defense bonuses that will be less valuable to healers or damage dealers (DPS), such as bonuses to tank talents or cooldowns. Three or four nodes in each tree will be choice nodes where you can choose between two options.
Hero Talents are meant to add enough damage or healing throughput to be significant without being so important that these new talents overshadow your current class and spec tree talents. Most Hero Talent trees add new visual effects to classes, both to communicate what they’re doing and bring their class fantasies to life. However, these are not complete visual reworks – your class and spec are still the same at their core, and that will continue to come through.
We want players to be free to choose the Hero Talent tree that has the gameplay, visuals, or flavor that they prefer. Our goal is for both options to feel similarly effective in raid dungeons, Mythic+, and PvP. We’re working to avoid abilities or bonuses in Hero Talents that could make a certain tree feel “required” for activities where we can.
We know that for some players, prioritizing total throughput is the most important thing to them, even if the difference between choices seems small. That’s okay but keeping Hero Talent balance close is one of our priorities so that players can play what they prefer and still be viable in any content.
Since we announced Hero Talents at BlizzCon, it’s been great to see all the conversation and speculation surrounding the 39 Hero Talent titles. We’d like to share some of the thinking that went behind choosing those concepts.
Each Hero Talent concept must be appropriate for both of the specs that can use it. Some concepts build on overlaps in abilities or flavors between the two specs that can use it, like Colossus warriors, which are as mighty as Arms warriors and as imposing as Protection warriors. Others create new themes that are appropriate for both specs, like Fatebound rogues.
Hero Talents also retain your combat role and the gear that you use so that you’re not competing for new types of gear. For iconic Warcraft character archetypes, we wanted to be sure that we could deliver on their fantasy with World of Warcraft’s classes. Blademasters just wouldn’t be Blademasters without abilities like Wind Walk and Mirror Image, but those abilities don’t fit in a warrior’s toolkit.
Lastly, there are several iconic character archetypes that are strongly tied to specific races and factions, such as Keeper of the Grove or Mountain Thane. It’s exciting to embody these storied archetypes, but we want to ensure that characters of every race and faction can see themselves as those archetypes. We’re open to feedback on what feels good for your characters versus what is frustrating.
We have several goals for what it feels like to play World of Warcraft with Hero Talents. Here are some of our guiding principles for how they affect your capabilities, your rotation, what you pay attention to in combat, and your user interface.
We like to say on the team that our goal for Hero Talents gameplay is for them to make you “what you are, but more.” We know that many of you have long histories with your favorite classes, and you play them because you like their gameplay and the spells and abilities that matter in their rotation, whether it’s the spinning plates of Affliction, the cycles of Arcane, or the frenetic reactivity of Fury. Hero Talents don’t override what matters to a class. You should feel like you’re playing your spec with a twist or a boost and not as if the things you care about have become unimportant or been replaced.
A Hero Talent tree might add new behavior or bonuses to an existing ability, like Keeper of the Grove’s bonuses to Force of Nature and Grove Guardian treants. They might occasionally reset the cooldown on abilities or replace spells with more powerful versions. They might make it easier to maintain important buffs or grant additional resources at key moments.
One thing that we’re keeping a close eye on is complexity. Classes in WoW have a lot of abilities and talents, and there’s a lot to learn about each one. We want Hero Talents to add new fun without creating new burdens, either in customizing or playing a character. Most Hero Talent trees do not add new buttons that players will need to add to their action bar or find a new keybind for. There will be additional opportunities for players to express their skill, but we’re trying not to add things like complex maintenance buffs that increase the cognitive load for everyone playing a class. Most of the choices a player will make about how complex they want their rotation to be will continue to be made in their class and spec talent trees.
Some Hero Talents do require you to take certain talents in your class or spec trees to access their powers. This is often because those talents fit the flavor and theme of that specific Hero Talent tree. The Mountain Thane warrior tree enhances Avatar and Thunder Clap, Templar paladin gives extra power to Wake of Ashes, and Elune’s Chosen druids can cast a particularly strong Fury of Elune. However, a Hero Talent tree will only ever require or enhance a small number of class or spec talents. It’s important to us that there still is freedom in customizing your class build.
Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing full designs for Hero Talent trees from The War Within. We’re excited to hear what you think of them.
We’re starting things off by sharing the first set of trees here. Below, you’ll find the Hero Talents for San’Layn Death Knights, Chronowarden Evokers, Lightsmith Paladins , and Mountain Thane Warriors.
San’layn are death knights who have mastered the vampiric arts of the darkfallen. They consume the vitality of their enemies to protect and restore themselves. Their endless hunger only strengthens them.
Vampiric Strike: Your Death Coil and Death Strike have a 10% chance to make your next Heart Strike or Scourge Strike become Vampiric Strike. Vampiric Strike heals you for 3% of your maximum health and grants you Essence of the Blood Queen, increasing your Haste by 1.5%, up to 7.5% for 20 seconds.
Choice Node: Newly Turned & Vampiric Speed
Blood-Soaked Ground: While you are within your Death and Decay, your physical damage taken is reduced by 5% and your chance to gain Vampiric Strike is increased by 5%.
Choice Node: Vampiric Aura & Bloody Fortitude
Infliction of Sorrow: When Vampiric Strike damages an enemy affected by Blood Plague or Virulent Plague it consumes the disease dealing 200% of the remaining damage. While Gift of the San’layn is active, Vampiric Strike no longer consumes your disease and instead extends the duration of your disease by 3 sec and deals 20% of the remaining damage to the enemy.
Frenzied Bloodthirst: Essence of the Blood Queen stacks 2 additional times and increases the damage of your Death Coil and Death Strike by 5% per stack.
The Blood is Life: Vampiric Strike has a chance to summon a Blood Beast to attack your enemy for 10 sec. Each time the Blood Beast attacks it stores a portion of the damage dealt and when the Blood Beast dies it explodes dealing 50% of the damage accumulated to nearby enemies and healing the death knight for the same amount.
Visceral Regeneration: Your Heart Strike and Scourge Strike have a 3% per stack of Essence of the Blood Queen to refund a Rune. Vampiric Strike doubles the chance to refund a Rune.
Incite Terror: Heart Strike and Scourge Strike extend the duration of Essence of the Blood Queen by 0.5 seconds. Vampiric Strike increases the extension by 100%.
Choice Node: Sanguine Scent & Pact of the San’layn
Gift of the San’layn: While Vampiric Blood or Dark Transformation is active you gain Gift of the San’layn. Gift of the San’layn increases the effectiveness of your Essence of the Blood Queen by 100% and replaces your Heart Strike and Scourge Strike with Vampiric Strike for the duration.
Chronowardens can manipulate time and see into the future. By specializing in Bronze magic, they are slightly unstable due to the vast amount of knowledge available to them. They are precise, erudite, and organized individuals who seek to understand the world through careful study.
Chrono Flame: Living Flame is enhanced with Bronze magic, repeating 15% of the damage or healing you dealt to the target in the last 5 seconds as Arcane, up to a fixed amount.
Warp: Hover now warps you through time and space and its cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds. Hover continues to allow Evoker spells to be cast while moving.
Temporal Burst: Tip the Scales overloads you with temporal energy, increasing your Haste, movement speed and cooldown recovery rate by 2%, ramping up to 40% over 20 seconds.
Reverberations: Spiritbloom heals for an additional 30% over 8 seconds. Upheaval deals 30% additional damage over 8 seconds.
Choice Node: Interdimensional Phase & Motes of Acceleration
Threads of Fate: Casting an Essence ability during Temporal Burst causes a nearby ally to gain a Thread of Fate for 15 seconds, granting them a chance to echo their damage or healing spells, dealing 15% of the amount again.
Primacy: For each damage over time effect from Upheaveal or Spiritbloom, gain 3% Haste, up to 9%.
Choice Node: Careful Contemplation & Time Convergence
Choice Node: Master of Destiny & Golden Opportunity
Instability Matrix: Each time you cast an empower spell, unstable time magic reduces its cooldown by up to 15 seconds. Echo has a 25% chance to not cost Essence.
Afterimage: Empower spells send up to 3 Chrono Flames to your targets. Chrono Flames have a small chance to grant you Essence Burst.
Lightsmiths are paladins who have developed such masterful control over the Light that they are able to wield it tangibly, employing constructs to empower their weapons and defenses and to protect their allies.
Holy Armaments: Will the Light to coalesce and become manifest at a target location as a Holy Armament, which may be wielded by you or your allies. Alternates between Holy Bulwark and Sacred Weapon. Lats 20 sc after being cast. Max 2 charges.
Holy Bulwark: While wielding a Holy Bulwark, gain an absorption shield for 15% of your maximum health and an additional 5% every 2 seconds, stacking up to 30%.
Sacred Weapon: While wielding a Sacred Weapon, your spells and abilities have a chance to deal additional Holy damage or healing.
Choice Node: Rite of Sanctification & Rite of Adjuration
Solidarity: If an ally picks up an Armament, you also gain its benefits. If you pick up an Armament, a nearby ally also gains its benefits.
Choice Node: Divine Guidance & Blessed Assurance
Laying Down Arms: When an Armament fades from you, the cooldown of Lay on Hands is reduced by 15 seconds, and you gain Shining Light or Infusion of Light.
Choice Node: Divine Inspiration & Forewarning
Choice Node: Fear No Evil & Excoriation
Shared Resolve: The effect of your active Aura is increased by 33% on targets with your Armaments.
Valiance: Consuming Shining Light or Infusion of Light extends the duration of any active Armaments by 3.0 seconds, or reduces the cooldown by 3 seconds if none exist.
Hammer and Anvil: Judgment critical strikes cause a shockwave around the target, dealing additional Holy damage or healing at the target’s location.
Blessing of the Forge: Avenging Wrath summons an additional Sacred Weapon, and during Avenging Wrath your Sacred Weapon casts spells on your target and echoes the effects of your Holy Power abilities.
Mountain Thanes embody the strength of the mountains and the power of the storm. They channel thunder and lightning through their reinforced bodies to make them an unstoppable force.
Lightning Strikes: Damaging enemies with Thunder Clap, Revenge, Raging Blow, or Execute has a 10% chance to also strike one with a lightning bolt, dealing moderate Nature damage. Lightning Strikes occur 50% more often during Avatar.
Call of Thunder: The Stormstrike damage or Nature damage your abilities deal is increased by 5%. Stormstrike damage ignores Armor. Thunder Clap damage increased by 50%. For Fury only, Thunder Clap generates 5 Rage and Improved Whirlwind and Meat Cleaver now improve Thunder Clap as well as Whirlwind.
Ground Current: Lightning Strikes also deal low amounts of Nature damage to enemies near their target. Damage reduced beyond 5 targets.
Strength of the Mountain: Shield Slam damage increased by 20%. Bloodthirst and Rampage damage increased by 10%.
Thunder Blast: Shield Slam and Bloodthirst have a 20% chance to grant you Thunder Blast, stacking up to 2 charges. Thunder Blast causes your next Thunder Clap to become a Thunder Blast that deals Stormstrike damage.
Choice Node: Storm Bolts & Storm Shield
Choice Node: Flashing Skies & Valarjar Training
Choice Node: Steadfast as the Peaks & Keep Your Feet on the Ground
Choice Node: Gathering Clouds & Thorim’s Might
Burst of Power: Lightning Strikes have a 20% chance to make your next 2 Shield Slams or Bloodthirsts have no cooldown.
Avatar of the Storm: Casting Avatar grants you 2 charges of Thunder Blast and resets the cooldown of Thunder Clap. While Avatar is not active, Lightning Strikes have a 10% chance to grant you Avatar for 4 seconds.
We look forward to hearing your thoughts and sharing more as we progress in development.
